The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program. The objectives of the planned breeding program were to develop new Guzmania varieties for commercial ornamental purposes. The new variety originated from a cross pollination of an unnamed, unpatented proprietary Guzmania hybrid seed parent with an unpatented, Guzmania wittmackii referred to as ‘Rosada Purple’ as the pollen parent. The crossing was made during 2003 in a commercial greenhouse in Alajuela, Costa Rica.
The new variety was discovered and selected by the inventor, Chester Skotak jr., Jan. 28, 2008 in a group of seedlings resulting from the crossing. The new cultivar was selected in a commercial greenhouse in Alajuela, Costa Rica.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘DURATAT’ was first performed at a commercial laboratory by tissue culture during May of 2011. Subsequent propagation by tissue culture has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type.